FCC Chairman Ajit Pai asked NARUC and state regulators to act against high inmate calling service rates for calls within states. His letter Monday comes as the federal agency is poised to vote Aug. 6 on lowering some interstate inmate calling service rates and amid a focus by communications stakeholders and others on racial justice and diversity.
The tech industry wants a transition to a new data sharing regime between the U.S. and Europe, after a European court rejected Privacy Shield. Early Thursday EDT, the European Court of Justice ruled against aspects of PS. The case involves Max Schrems, who has been challenging PS for some time.
The Senate Commerce Committee plans a July 22 vote on advancing FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly’s renomination to a term ending in 2024, as expected.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai wants commissioners to vote at the FCC's Aug. 6 meeting on prison phone rates, an issue attracting additional scrutiny during COVID-19 and amid protests over policing, criminal justice and racial diversity. Inmate calling services providers would "generally be subject to the FCC’s rules when it comes to ancillary service charges -- including our fee caps and our limits on the types of charges allowed," Pai blogged Wednesday.
Bidding on using the C band for things like 5G, necessitating moving satellite operators, is one FCC auction that won't be delayed due to COVID-19 and its fallout. Chairman Ajit Pai made the announcement Wednesday as he disclosed items for the Aug. 6 commissioners' meeting.
SES filed a $1.8 billion claim Tuesday in Intelsat's bankruptcy, claiming the rival C-band operator committed breach of contract and of fiduciary duties plus unjust enrichment stemming from Intelsat's alleged violation of the C-Band Alliance agreement terms. Intelsat didn't comment. The claim, filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, said the CBA agreement set up SES and Intelsat as the lead members, splitting both control and the vast majority of the alliance's proceeds. SES said even after FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the agency would pursue a public auction, the two still continued to partner until the draft C-band order, which laid out incentive payment terms for the satellite operators, with Intelsat getting a bigger share.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is eyeing additional duties on French products over France’s digital services tax. After determining in December the DST "is unreasonable or discriminatory and burdens or restricts U.S. commerce," USTR said Friday it plans the additional duties of 25%; it will suspend those levies' application for up to six months.
The Supreme Court Monday upheld the constitutionality of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act in a much-watched case heard in April, Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants. Justices let stand a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, which declared a 2015 government debt collection exemption unconstitutional and severed the provision from the remainder of the TCPA.
It likely wouldn't be safe to hold a meeting indoors, even in October, a tech think tank announced Thursday afternoon. The Technology Policy Institute in mid-April canceled its annual summer event for Aspen, Colorado, because of COVID-19. At that time, it planned to hold the rescheduled event Oct. 16-18 in person but in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Its $1.4 billion purchase of Sprint's Boost Mobile complete, Dish Network is now in the retail wireless marketplace, it said Wednesday. It said it would keep the Boost brand, and reinstituted a shrinking payments plan. It said its "$hrink-It!" plan starts at $45 a month for 15 GB and goes down by $5 after three on-time payments and another $5 after six on-time payments. It said Boost's previous shrinking payments offering ended in July 2014.